gaylordrgmfandomcom-20200214-history
Courtney Brumley
'Family History:' I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where my parents still live. My parents are Patrick Brumley and Tonya Cook. I am a 6th generation Texan on my father's side. He is one of two boys, born of Howard Patrick and Mary Brumley. He was born in Austin, TX. With his parents, he moved to Corpus Christi in fifth grade and then the DFW area in high school. My mother was born in Texas, as well. She was born of Dorothy Lois and Courtney Gossett and has three brothers and one sister. Uniquely, my grandpa's name was actually Courtney, this who I was named after. My last name Brumley comes from Ireland. The original name was O'Bromley but when my ancestors came to America, they dropped the O's in our name, to protects themselves against racism toward the Irish in America. It makes me sad, knowing my ancestors had to change their name in order to fit in in America. I actually like the original O'bromley name better, it sounds more authentic. My family migrated to the southern U.S. because it was said to be more welcoming and inviting to immigrants, than was the North. View my family tree: http://www.familyecho.com/?p=START&c=10ka4cgzha3&f=619178592757579239 My mom's family ancestry comes mainly from Italian and Cherokee Indian. My grandpa Courtney was one-fourth Italian. My grandma Lois (granny as I call her) was born in Alabama. One of ELEVEN children, my Granny was the only one to move to DFW when she got married. In fact, she was the only one who moved out of Alabama, period. In the end, it is clear both sided have come to love the great state of Texas, as have I. 'My Family Today: ' I am the second oldest of five siblings, two brothers and two sisters. My siblings and I are all extremely close and we love our big -although somewhat unconventional- family. My brothers are Stefan- 24 and Christian- 16. My sisters are Cecilee- 17 and Kassie- 12. I love having four brothers, growing up there was always something to do and someone to hang out with. Being the oldest has its advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, I was only really picked on by Stefan--well until the younger ones, (especially Christian who is now bigger than me) caught up to me. However, being the second oldest gives me a lot of responsibility. I grew to like this, but it was difficult to take on at first. Following religion, my family is the most important thing to me and I cherish them very much. All of my parents, share the importance of religion and Christianity. We were raised to go to church on Sunday's and joined groups and attended church camps growing up. My mom and dad were divorced and re-married when I was young. My mom married David Cook, together they had Cecilee and Christian. My dad remarried Leann Brumley, they had Kassie. Having a blended family has provided me with even more family to provide love and support, more traditions, and simply just more FUN. However, even my step-mom and step-dad's family history shows generations upon generations of native U.S. citizenship. My step-mom is from Oklahoma, actually. Although she went to OSU, she has been a major impact on my coming to OU. Now, her family has all moved to Texas. My step-dad also has family that lives in Oklahoma. Most times I feel like Texas and Oklahoma create one big state together, because they have many similarities. While my parents divorced and re-married when I was young, they get along just fine. It makes things much more enjoyable for everyone that way. Growing up my family was like most of your average, suburban families. We all played, or still do play, sports. We grew up attending each other sporting events. We all share a competitive drive. May it be playing board games, basketball in our backyard or swimming races, we enjoy a good competition. Both my mom and dad go on a yearly family vacation. Unfortunately, the older I have gotten, I do not get to go on them as much. My dad and Leann loved taking us on family trips in the car when we were younger. As Kassie ha s gotten older, they have phased out the driving and take airplanes to most of the vacation destinations now. My dad's favorite place to take us was Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas- where my grandparents lived. My dad loved going back where his parents lived and showing us where he went to school when he was a boy. 'Family Traditions ' Every couple years my mom's family has a family reunion in Alabama. It is fun to go see our family and reconnect with everyone, since we are one of the families who does not see everyone as much since we live in Texas. Most years we all do some camping out in the woods, and sing songs and sit around the bon fire and eat....ALOT. My mom's family is about as Southern as you can get, and I love it. Everyone hunts...the boys are raised to hunt and the girls are welcome to go with the men, also. Mean while the men are hunting, the women are usually cooking away in the kitchen. My granny is a PHENOMINAL cook, as long as you aren't trying to be healthy. My granny and her sisters were taught how to cook by their mom. Using cast-iron skillets is kind of a hallmark to my family. All the women use cast-iron skillets.....except my mom and I. There are funny stories to come about my mom, myself and my granny cooking together. While the family reunions are only every couple years, we have smaller family get-together's throughout the year. Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving are all spent with lots of family. My grandparents and uncle, on my mom's side, share about 20 acres of land in East Texas. Most of our holidays are spent out there, with my grandparents, a few great aunts and uncles, and lots of cousins! Going out to East-Texas is one of my favorite things to do, I love being out in the country with all of my family. We play on the four-wheelers and outdoor vehicles, fish and enjoy the beauty of the country. Once again there is a lot of eating, cooking, games and story-telling. Our favorite games are dominoes and catch-phrase. You can check out more about Jefferson here: http://www.jefferson-texas.com/ This Christmas, however, we celebrated Christmas at my mom's house. Things brings me back to the cooking story with my mom, grandma and I. While my mom does enjoy cooking, she never really picked up on the southern cooking my granny is so accustomed to. We asked my granny to make her famous breakfast one morning and she was getting all heated about how we didn't have the appropriate cooking materials and she asked "how the heck do you expect me to cook without an cast-iron skillet" this made us all crack up laughing. Later that evening when we were making dinner, my mom opted for the microwavable mash-potatoes, and my granny just did not understand what she was doing, she said "I don't know what this is, I don't cook using a microwave". Maybe you had to be there but it is just funny because my granny still has those strong southern routs she was raised on in Alabama. Some of my granny's recipes remind me of the pioneer woman blog: http://thepioneerwoman.com/ .However, I have been doing my best to learn how to cook like my granny when I am with her, so I can keep her traditional Alabama cooking alive. 'My Family Values' As I mentioned earlier, my family puts our religion first. My granny came from a Baptist background, my father Catholic. These beliefs go back to all of my ancestors I could get information about. Second to religion, comes family. My family has raised me to respect and appreciate family and our elders. We have also been taught to accept others and live by the golden rule: treat others as you wish to be treated. Although this is a common saying, I really do try to live my life by this and be accepting of people. This means getting to know people for who they are and not what they look like or where they come from. Category:Students